Saturday, February 18, 2012

I received the biggest gift this morning. When my 2nd grade daughter woke up, she had a paper with her. She said she had a dream last night and "this is what I decided to add to my Doodle 4 Google.." she showed me her paper and she had filled in illustrations around the empty letters. And they were cute! She still has work to do but I didn't know she was at all excited about this contest until, well, this morning!So, let your kids look at past winners after talking about where they would want to time travel to. The hundreds of past entries really explain this contest to kids and they are exciting to look at. Happy doodling!P.S. there should be an adult version of this contest

Friday, February 17, 2012

Doodle 4 Google is the one contest that I am crazy about.
This year's theme is: "If I could travel in time, I'd visit..."

My daughter and I just started brainstorming for the idea that she is going to illustrate. It's exciting for her and she's enjoying playing around with the logo and her drawings.

Of course, my dream is to see my daughter and my students make it all the way to the finals and to have the nation vote for the winner.

This contest has incredible prizes but just as importantly, it presents each student who participates an opportunity to illustrate an idea around the Google logo which is a great challenge.
Check out past winners here --> http://www.google.com/doodle4google/winners_state.html#4

Here are the winners that have been chosen as the National Winners since the contest started in the United States back in 2008

2011 Winner: 2nd Grader

2010 Winner: 3rd Grader

2009 Winner: 6th Grader

2008 Winner: 6th Grader, too

I am sworn to complete secrecy the ideas that my daughter and students are thinking up. I'll tell you this, they are GOOD!

Friday, February 10, 2012

Wow, they did a great job! In this project, 2nd graders collected 50-100 of the same everyday object. In one class period, students created a sculpture using their collected items. Here are a few photos of finished sculptures from TGG and BT.

One of my very favorite projects so far this year. My second graders at Toll Gate finished their Cardinal portraits this week. I am looking forward to sharing this project with my kids at Bear Tavern before the winter is over.

We began this project studying Cardinals. Shape, characteristics, color. After drawing a cardinal, students added fabulous branches into their compositions. We explored painting techniques galore for this project.Of course, when students finished, I showed them how to draw the most famous cardinal... the Angry Bird.

Art Teacher Side note mumble: during this entire project, the kids knew they were creating a great piece of art and they really enjoyed this project. However, the 15 minutes we spent drawing the the Angry Birds was their favorite part. I felt better when they rushed me to take down the display because they couldn't wait to take the cardinal paintings home. Of course the paintings went home that same day. Art is to be shared.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Jim Dine is an American Pop Artist. He does an awesome job using the heart (shape) as his subject.

Kindergarten created oil pastel and painted hearts for their Square 1 Art project in September but I really wanted to show the 1st graders Jim Dine's work. So for this project, we did a Jim Dine spin-off.

After viewing Jim Dine's work and talking about the similarities, 1st graders practiced drawing hearts to fill a rectangular 5"x7" space. Next, they glued foil to a piece of mat board and smoothed it out. They transferred their heart drawing to the foil and outlined in sharpie marker.

Next up was to use a ruler to make the hearts look abstracted and fragmented. Then they filled in their fragmented parts using repeated lines, shapes and/or other designs.

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About Me

I am an elementary art teacher for the Hopewell Valley Schools. I teach at a wonderful school named Bear Tavern. In my career as an art teacher, I have taught to all grades preschool to grade 12. I love them all!! I also teach consistently at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ where I have had a partnership since 2001; thirteen wonderful years! I run a monthly program called Tots on Tour and teach family and children's workshops as well.
I love teaching art. I love finding interesting art topics and techniques to share with my students. Currently, I am most interested in large scale art installations, murals, mosaics and collaborative green art projects.
I hope you enjoy my blog, become a member and share your thoughts on my lessons.